Members of Congress are fed up with President Barack Obama’s abuse of executive power.

Yesterday, the House passed a bill that would allow congressional lawsuits against Obama for his failure to enforce federal laws. The sponsor of the ENFORCE the Law Act, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), spoke of the President’s overreach in a strong speech on the House floor.

“How does going from being a senator to a president rewrite the constitution?” he said, adding that, “We are not a country where the ends justify the means no matter how good your motivations may be.”

Gowdy argued that other arms of the executive branch are reviewed, checked, and disciplined “because process matters.”

“If a president does not faithfully execute the law, Mr. Speaker, what are our remedies?” Gowdy demanded. “Just sit and wait on another election?”

During yesterday’s “Conversations with Conservatives” event, a number of representatives also expressed their concern over Obama’s abuse of executive power, including Tim Huelskamp (R-KS) and Raul Labrador (R-ID).

H.R.4138Latest Title: ENFORCE the Law Act of 2014Sponsor: Rep Gowdy, Trey [SC-4] (introduced 3/4/2014) Cosponsors (22)Related Bills:H.RES.511Latest Major Action: 3/13/2014 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.House Reports: 113-377

[Showing the text of the bill as ordered reported by the Committee on the Judiciary.]

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Executive Needs to 3 Faithfully Observe and Respect Congressional Enact- 4 ments of the Law Act of 2014’’ or the ‘‘ENFORCE the 5 Law Act of 2014’’. 6 SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION TO BRING CIVIL ACTION FOR VIO- 7 LATION OF THE TAKE CARE CLAUSE. 8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Upon the adoption of a resolution 9 of a House of Congress declaring that the President, the

10 head of any department or agency of the United States, 11 or any other officer or employee of the United States has 12 established or implemented a formal or informal policy, 13 practice, or procedure to refrain from enforcing, applying, 14 following, or administering any provision of a Federal 15 statute, rule, regulation, program, policy, or other law in 16 violation of the requirement that the President take care 17 that the laws be faithfully executed under Article II, sec- 18 tion 3, clause 5, of the Constitution of the United States,

March 6, 2014 (2:47 p.m.)

2 1 that House is authorized to bring a civil action in accord-

2 ance with subsection (c), and to seek relief pursuant to 3 sections 2201 and 2202 of title 28, United States Code. 4 A civil action brought pursuant to this subsection may be 5 brought by a single House or both Houses of Congress 6 jointly, if both Houses have adopted such a resolution.

7 (b) RESOLUTION DESCRIBED.

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(1) the title of which is as follows: ‘‘Relating to the application of Article II, section 3, clause 5, of the Constitution of the United States.’’

(2) which does not have a preamble; and

(3) the matter after the resolving clause which is as follows: ‘‘That lllllll has failed to meet the requirement of Article II, section 3, clause 5, of the Constitution of the United States to take care that a law be faithfully executed, with respect to lllllllll.’’ (the blank spaces being appropriately filled in with the President or the per- son on behalf of the President, and the administra- tive action in question described in subsection (a), respectively).

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3 (c) SPECIAL RULES.—If the House of Representa-

tives or the Senate brings a civil action pursuant to sub- section (a), the following rules shall apply:

(1) The action shall be filed in a United States district court of competent jurisdiction and shall be heard by a 3-judge court convened pursuant to sec- tion 2284 of title 28, United States Code.

(2) A final decision in the action shall be re- viewable only by appeal directly to the Supreme Court of the United States. Such appeal shall be taken by the filing of a notice of appeal within 10 days, and the filing of a jurisdictional statement within 30 days, of the entry of the final decision.

(3) It shall be the duty of the United States district courts and the Supreme Court of the United States to advance on the docket and to expedite to the greatest possible extent the disposition of any such action and appeal.

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Constitutional Republic Of The United States

True Federalism.

“The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent to.

Let the national government be entrusted with the defense of the nation, and its foreign and federal relations; the State governments with the civil rights, law, police, and administration of what concerns the State generally; the counties with the local concerns of the counties, and each ward direct the interests within itself.

It is by dividing and subdividing these republics from the great national one down through all its subordinations, until it ends in the administration of every man’s farm by himself; by placing under every one what his own eye may superintend, that all will be done for the best.

What has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every government which has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating all cares and powers into one body.”

– Thomas Jefferson

Unconstitutional Powers By Repetition

Usurpations by one branch of government, of powers entrusted to a coequal branch, are not rendered constitutional by repetition.

The United States Supreme Court held unconstitutional hundreds of laws enacted by Congress over the course of five decades that included a legislative veto of executive actions in INS v. Chada, 462 U.S. 919 (1982).